Beauty professionals pitching plan to safely reopen salons in Michigan

(FOX 2) - As the owner of K Bella Hair Studio and Spa in Brighton, Kristan Sayers has seen the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis firsthand. 

Her normally-busy salon has been empty since mid-March. Now she worries about her staff of 25 and other industry professionals. 

"It's challenging, worrying about their finances and their health. As a salon owner we all are just out there trying to keep in touch with them and help them in any way as we possibly can," she said.

That's why Sayers, who is also the president of the Michigan Association of Beauty Professionals (MABP), wanted to create a plan to help salons, spas and barbershops across the state open safely. 

The MABP worked for weeks to come up with recommendations, including limiting the number of people, taking client temperatures and wearing proper PPE.

"We don't want anyone to think we are trying to push salons to get open faster, or that we are trying to push to get them open slower. We want everyone to realize we want to work with everyone's opinions and we want to stay neutral and we just want to help our industry to go back safely for the clients and staff."

Sayers said they reached out to several people in Lansing to share their recommendations and are waiting to hear back. She hopes that happens soon so the MABP can work with the state and make sure owners are ready when its time to open their doors again. 

"The main goal here is so that every single person in our industry follows a standard because the worry is, if we go back and we don't follow a standard what's to say we aren't going to go back out of work? So our biggest and strongest message is to make sure we do everything properly."

The MABP says they have grant information for industry professionals to help them get through the crisis, so if they're not a member they want you to reach out to them.